Free Republic

With the proliferation of bureaucrats in leftist-run California, they're descending like locusts onto the farms of not just California's lower Central Valley, but now the Napa Valley and its wine makers, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. The farmers are swatting back. The Daily Mail reports:Napa Valley's prestigious wineries have launched a revolt against 'abusive' county officials, accusing bureaucrats of killing the region's famous vineyards with absurd and excessive red tape.Wealthy vintners say they are being 'crushed' by 'gross regulatory overreach', which has included penalizing wineries for planting trees, making jam and conducting wine tastings on their own land.One vineyard...

VIDEO AT LINK............ May 24 (UPI) -- A California man who returned a library book that was found to be 96 years overdue said he believes the tome was originally checked out by his deceased wife's grandfather. Jim Perry of Napa said he was going through boxes of books that had belonged to his wife, Sandra Learned Perry, when he came across a copy of Benson Lossing's A History of the United States from the St. Helena Public Library. Perry said he believes the book was checked out by John McCormick, Sandra Learned Perry's grandfather, who would have been 55...

Canadian police have released the identity of a homeless man who was stabbed to death by a pack of teenage girls last month. Ken Lee, 59, an immigrant from Hong Kong who was trying to find housing in Toronto, was beaten and stabbed by eight girls ranging in age from 13 to 16.It is believed Lee was attacked while defending a friend of his who the girls were trying to steal a bottle of liquor from. Each of the girls were arrested and charged with second degree murder, with Detective Sergeant Terry Browne of the Toronto Police calling the brutal...

Secretary of Transportation and former Democratic Party presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg traveled to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s annual fundraiser with Democrats at a winery in Napa Valley, California, according to NBC News. Last year, Pelosi’s fundraiser made headlines because Democrats were sipping wine while Americans were dying in Afghanistan during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from that country, leaving the Taliban in charge.

Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, was arrested this weekend for DUI ... TMZ has learned. The House Speaker's spouse was arrested just before midnight Saturday night in Napa County, and then booked hours later into jail on two counts -- driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content level of 0.08 or higher ... both misdemeanors.

"Brutal” and “relentless” were the words one California winemaker used after receiving evacuation alerts early Sunday morning. The Glass fire, which ignited just before 4 a.m. Sept. 27 near the community of Deer Park, quickly spread to the eastern foothills between Calistoga and St. Helena in the heart of Napa Valley. There are now multiple fires burning in Napa and Sonoma, which have consumed a total of 11,000 acres, with 0 percent 1containment, according to the state agency Cal Fire.

Wednesday was not Robert James Fimbres’ night. Thursday wasn’t looking good either. The Napa County man tried to set Old Glory ablaze in his father’s driveway and things got out of hand. He burned down Dad’s garage instead, American Canyon police say.

Steve Sando, the owner of Rancho Gordo New World Specialty Food, spends more than half a million dollars each year shipping his heirloom beans to destinations worldwide. Until Monday, FedEx shipped the lion’s share. But not anymore. Sando, who said he was fed up with gun violence, stopped using FedEx as his main shipper. Sando said he could no longer work with FedEx because it provides discounts to National Rifle Association members. “The NRA is a really powerful machine that doesn’t allow dialog about gun violence,” said Sando.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who often rails against income inequality and calls on the wealthy to pay its "fair share" in taxes, took pains in late December to try to preserve tax breaks for two of her multi-million-dollar homes one last time before the new tax law kicked in.Largely thanks to her husband Paul, a real-estate and venture-capital investor, Pelosi is the wealthiest woman in Congress with a net worth of more than $100 million and the seventh wealthiest member overall, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.In fact, assets and cash disclosed in her 2016 financial-disclosure statement...

Two places to donate money to help the California fire victims! All of your money will go to that effort! The family that owns Hall’s Winery has started a matching fund drive to help the people in the fire areas needing financial aid. Every $ donated will be matched and will go to help those in need and not line some rich liberal so called charity’s pockets! Many of the evacuees left their homes at night with minimal clothing and basically what money they might have had at home. Many will have no homes to return to and maybe no...

In the early hours of the blaze, officials at the Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department discussed sending something similar to an Amber Alert to cell phones in the area, but chose not to since it would have gone to tens of thousands of people not in immediate danger. The type of warning, called a Wireless Emergency Alert, can only target phones in large geographic areas, according to Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Coordinator Zachary Hamill, who made the decision not to send the wireless alert together with the county’s emergency manager, Christopher Helgren. “If I had done...

More than 300 firefighters are working to control the raging wildfires burning through northern California's Wine Country that have left at least one dead. Wind-fueled wildfires broke out late Sunday night into early Monday morning destroying more than 1,500 homes and businesses and forcing 20,000 people to evacuate. Fourteen fast-moving fires continue to burn through eight counties-Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Yuba, Nevada, Calaveras and Butte. The fires have destroyed 57,000 acres total leaving 50,000 people without power. Governor of California Jerry Brown has issued a state of emergency for Napa, Sonoma and Yuba Counties as fires blaze through the Wine...

Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, where wind-whipped fires have destroyed at least 1,500 structures, including many homes and businesses in Santa Rosa, and forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. In Mendocino County, one person was killed when the Redwood Complex Fire rushed up 4,500 acres from Redwood Valley toward Willits, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection assistant deputy director Daniel Berlant said. California’s fire chief says numerous people have been injured and a number of residents are also missing as 14 large fires burn. Cal Fire...

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Multiple wildfires were burning early Monday in Sonoma and Napa counties, threatening homes and businesses and prompting mass evacuations as well as school cancellations and power outages. A fire in Santa Rosa crossed Highway 101 at about 2 a.m. and ignited structures west of the freeway in the area of Kohl's Department Store on Hopper Avenue, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.

NAPA (CBS SF) — Wind-whipped wildfires roared to life Sunday night and early Monday across Wine Country, burning building, forcing evacuations and injuring several people. The Atlas Peak fire was the largest of several wildfires, quickly growing to more than 200 acres near Napa. Meanwhile, the fire near Calistoga had burned several building and sent several people to the hospital to be treated for burns. Cal Fire said firefighters were battling several blazes in Sonoma County. The largest was in the area of Porter Creek Road and Petrified Forest Road near Calistoga where mandatory evacuations were ordered for residents along...

A man who died after exchanging gunfire with police officers on Interstate 80 in Emeryville on Wednesday has been identified as 45-year-old Demilo Hodge, owner of Excursion Limousine Service based in Napa. Hodge grew up in the Bay Area and owned and managed the Executive Excursion Limousine Service, offering wine tours in the Napa and Sonoma areas.*snip*Hodge was wanted in connection with the killing of 68-year-old William Freeman in the 800 block of Sunset Court in Fairfield on Dec. 10, 2015, according to Fairfield police.

Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed a state budget that includes $250,000 that Napa County has long sought to help keep its farmworker housing program financially afloat. Napa County has three migrant farmworker centers that house a total of 180 men. Money for operations comes largely from a $10-per-acre annual assessment on vineyards and $13-a-day rent paid by lodgers. ==== That one-time state contribution of $250,000 will allow the county to catch up on maintenance and capital improvements at the centers, county Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza said.

Napa, Calif., Jun 1, 2017 / 04:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- What’s a good way to reach a lot of young people all at once?Plant yourself at an entrance of a popular music festival with a sign, some free stuff, and a smile.That’s what Catholic priest Fr. David Jenuwine did last weekend, at BottleRock Napa, a three-day music festival with roughly 30,000 in attendance.His sign read simply: Catholic priest. Blessings, Prayers, Confessions, Answers.Fr. Jenuwine, parochial vicar at St. Apollinaris Parish in Napa, California, told CNA that he had been trying to brainstorm creative ways to reach out to young adults...

The morning was supposed to be serene and idyllic with a group of restaurant writers, bloggers and foodies soaring high over Napa’s gorgeous wine country. Instead, Joanne Sasvari, a 40-something freelance writer for the Vancouver Sun, and her group were forced to make what she called an “unexpected” landing, before being rescued by the California Highway Patrol. That's because the winds picked up early Tuesday about 8 a.m., making it difficult for the pilot to land normally. Still, the entire ordeal took all of about 45 minutes, she said, and no one was injured after the balloon got stranded in...

group of predominantly African American women kicked off the Napa Wine Train in late August -- allegedly for being too loud -- filed an $11-million racial discrimination lawsuit Thursday. They said their reputations were tarnished and that some of them even lost their jobs after the incident.